I've long admired and been inspired by Leonardo, so I'm attracted to any decent book on him. Gelb's book is more than decent, and is in fact quite good, which is an evident reflection of his own great appreciation for Leonardo.
Gelb organizes his understanding of Leonardo according to seven key "principles" which he believes Leonardo exemplified and made him the polymath and virtuoso that he was. While one could debate Gelb's list, I think it's a reasonable list, and is certainly at least a helpful starting point. Let's look at the list specifically:
1. Curiosita is the drive to understand, learn, and grow, and surely must be the foundation for everything else. In terms of humanistic/positive psychology, this is similar to the drive to actualize one's potential.
2. Dimostrazione is about grounding oneself in empirical reality, including learning from experience. This reflects a scientific and pragmatic mindset.
3. Sensazione is about being genuinely perceptive, including both noticing fine details (as taught in science and art) and being mindful in general (as taught in some Eastern philosophies).
4. Sfumato is the necessity of becoming comfortable with the ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty we unavoidably encounter in our lives and the world. Without this flexibility and adaptiveness of mind, we are doomed to becoming confined within a very narrow domain of experience and our effectiveness in life is greatly diminished.
5. Arte/Scienza is about balance between holistic/creative and reductionistic/analytical thinking. I think that Gelb's choice of terminology is a bit caricatured and misleading here, since both art and science require both kinds of thinking if they are to be done well, but we all get his point ...
6. Corporalita is about maintaining your body's health and refining your body's abilities. While physical ability could be considered a bonus, health is clearly a necessary condition.
7. Connessione is about understanding and appreciating how everything is connected. This relates to sfumato and the arte/scienza balance, and also the modern theories of systems, networks, complexity, etc.
Building on this scheme of seven principles, Gelb provides a large number of exercises intended to aid our development in each of these areas. Hardly anyone will find time to do all of the exercises, but you could still try a targeted selection of them. However, I have to say that I wonder about the sense in doing such exercises. My understanding is that Leonardo was immersed in and engaged in life itself, rather than "preparing" for life by doing these sorts of somewhat contrived exercises. Can't the rest of us do the same? I personally remain busy with activities which cover all of Gelb's principles, and I wouldn't want to give up any of those activities for the sake of doing exercises. To me, it's like the difference between playing video games in your basement versus going out in the sun and participating in actual sports.
My only other criticism of the book is that it seems to necessarily preach to the choir. People who are already fans of Leonardo and what he was trying to do will naturally be drawn to this book, but I wonder if this book could have any real impact for people who don't come to it with curiosita in the first place.
That said, if you're already a member of the choir, I think you'll enjoy this book and might even be able to get something out of the exercises, so I can recommend the book to you.
Note: I've gone through this book in both unabridged audiobook and print format. Given all the exercises in the book, the audiobook is an unsuitable format.
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Leonardo and Michael Gelb’s 7 Steps To Creativity
How To Think Like Leonardo is educational, informative and instructive. Author Michael Gelb not only gives a captivating historical perspective of Da Vinci as an artist and engineer; he dissects those steps we can take to both harness and unleash our own creativity. It’s a brilliant and visually gorgeous book. I was watching the movie The Italian Job and star Mos Def was reading How To Think Like Leonardo and talked about its brilliance. Very impressive. This book inspires and motivates anyone who wants to be creative.
Top reviews from other countries
- M.E.B.Reviewed in India on May 2, 2016
Stimulating, enlivening book. Inspires accessible and impactful waking up of creativity and insight
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